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Roy Wood Jr. gave Clarence Thomas the business in spectacular comedic fashion at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend.
On Saturday night (April 29), The Daily Show comedian and writer was the host of the annual event. Introduced by President Joe Biden (who he shouted out as “Dark Brandon”), Wood’s set was electric – and included a biting and ultimately viral shot at embattled conservative Supreme Court Justice Thomas that had the crowd in stitches.
Wood roasted everyone from Biden to BET. “That’s how bad it is out there. These companies are so broke they’ve giving BET back to Black people,” he quipped. He then turned to chastise Republicans for their attempts to ban Critical Race Theory: “Anti-CRT policies are an attack on black history and an attempt to erase the contributions of black people from the history books,” he began. “That’s what it is. You are trying to erase black people. And a lot of black people wouldn’t mind some of that eraser as long as that black person is Clarence Thomas.”
He’d go on to reference the recent revelations of Thomas’ unsavory connection to GOP donor Harlan Crow.
“A billionaire named Harlan Crow, flying Clarence Thomas all over the world on unreported trips like the Instagram model taking plants to the Maldives and the beaches and all pay for his mom’s house, this billionaire. Paid for Clarence Thomas’ mama’s house!” Wood ended with this jab: “This man bought a Supreme Court Justice. Do you understand how rich you have to be to buy a Supreme, a Black one on top of that? There’s only two in stock. And Harlan Crow owns half the inventory. We can all see Clarence Thomas. But he belongs to billionaire Harlan Crow and that’s what an NFT is.”
In an interview the next day, Wood spoke about that highlight and the work he and other writers put into it: “OK, no one can really explain crypto. People have tried, but it doesn’t come out the right way. And then we thought, ‘Oh, but he owns him, and he’s not here,’ and then it was this lightbulb moment: ‘A-ha! Clarence Thomas is an NFT!’” Wood said.
The 44-year-old also shed light on that unspoken part of the NFT joke. “We felt like, OK, if you get that part of it, great, but if you don’t, cool. It’s almost like a choose-your-own-ending joke. That was the real objective.”
Check out the entire set below.
